Movable barrier operators are well understood in the art and include a wide variety of garage door openers (with both residential and commercial/industrial variations being available), sliding and swinging gates, rolling shutters, and so forth. Such operators usually include a programmable platform comprising a programmable gate array, a microcontroller, a microprocessor, or the like that controls various operational states of the operator (including movement of a corresponding barrier, light operation, state monitoring, unauthorized entry detection, and so forth). Prior art operators sometimes have one or more user accessible controls to allow for various modifications and/or installation actions to be effected. For the most part, controls to effect such actions are usually located either on the base unit of the operator itself and/or on a wireless remote control unit.
In addition to the above, many operators also include a remote control unit that is at least semi-permanently mounted remotely from the movable barrier operator itself. Such remote control units usually have one or more push buttons to allow an operator to control the opened/closed state of the movable barrier and/or a lighting unit provided integral to the movable barrier operator. These kinds of remote control units are usually coupled to the movable barrier operator by two electrical conductors and are themselves mounted on a wall or other fixed surface in or near the room to which access is at least partially controlled by the corresponding movable barrier.
Many consumers exhibit considerable price sensitivity when selecting a particular movable barrier operator. At the same time, however, many consumers desire a movable barrier operator having one or more specific features or conveniences. Unfortunately, the cost to the consumer becomes generally unacceptable when combining numerous features with a given movable barrier operator; while a given consumer may be willing to pay a higher price for an operator having the features that he or she desires, many are unwilling to pay an even higher price for an operator having both the features that they wish and additional features for which they have no desire.
Many movable barrier operators tend to be relatively reliable and long-lived. As a result, a user may become dissatisfied with a previously installed and otherwise properly functioning movable barrier operator because the operator lacks one or more features that the user now desires. With very few exceptions, in general such a user must remove the old operator and install a new operator having the desired features or simply do without the desired features. In those few instances when a new feature can be retrofitted to a previously installed movable barrier operator, the retrofitting itself can constitute a relatively complicated process. The process may require trained personnel, special equipment, and/or invasive retrofitting that can void warranties and otherwise dissuade a consumer from pursuing such an option.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are typically not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention.